Obama backs limits on NSA phone collections

Jan 17, 2014 by Julie Pace

In this Dec. 20, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks during an end-of-the year news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington. Capping a monthslong review, Obama is expected to back modest changes to the government's surveillance network at home and abroad while largely leaving the framework of the controversial programs in place, including the bulk collection of phone records from millions of Americans. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

President Barack Obama is ordering changes to the government's massive collection of phone records that he says will end the program "as it currently exists."

Obama says in a speech prepared for delivery at the Justice Department Wednesday that intelligence officials have not intentionally abused the program to invade privacy.

But he also says he believes critics of the program have been right to argue that without proper safeguards, the collection could be used to obtain more information about American's private lives and open the door to more intrusive programs.

Obama announced the changes after a months-long review spurred by former National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden's leaks about secret surveillance programs.

President Barack Obama is inviting lawmakers and intelligence officials to the White House to discuss National Security Agency programs as Obama prepares to unveil what changes he's prepared to make to the programs.

President Barack Obama is hosting a series of meetings this week with lawmakers, privacy advocates and intelligence officials as he nears a final decision on changes to the government's controversial surveillance programs.

President Barack Obama is expected to endorse changes to the way the government collects millions of Americans' phone records for possible future surveillance, but he is leaving many of the specific adjustments for Congress ...

Telephone "metadata" controversially scooped up by a US intelligence agency should not be destroyed but stored by private telecom giants, a former CIA chief said Tuesday days before President Barack Obama ...

Recommended for you

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that federal courts can hear a dispute over Colorado's Internet tax law. One justice suggested it was time to reconsider the ban on state collection of sales taxes from companies outside ...

Hillary Rodham Clinton used a personal email account during her time as secretary of state, rather than a government-issued email address, potentially hampering efforts to archive official government documents ...